B
bhuether
Guest
What is the name of your state? California
Sorry this isn't brief, but it contains the details necessary for assistance:
I live in California and am pressing charges against an individual (refer to from here onwards as S). It is in regards to credit card fraud and writing of bad checks. I was hoping someone can give me some angles to work on that the locals might not think of (they have busy schedules - it's not like they can think these things through from all angles).
Anyway, here are the details as a chronology. You have to read it all for everything to tie together as a unit.
1 S befriended my wife
2 S asked my wife one day while they were shopping, if she could borrow money to make a purchase in a store. My wife used our joint credit card and it cost $250. S wrote check for $250.
3 A week later, S and my wife were shopping. At this point we didn't know that the check mentioned in 2 above was bad. S asked to borrow more money. My wife made a purchase for her at one store. My wife didn't realize our joint credit card number was on the receipt. S asked for the receipt so she could have a record of what she owed. More on this to come. This same day, my wife went to ATM and took out $100 to lend her. And lastly, my wife (real smart, huh?) agreed to let her pay her SprintPCS bill with our credit card. The total of these purchases and transactions was $300. More on this later.
4 Day later, S said she would have her boss from Maryland fedex to us her last check. Her first check still hadn't cleared on top of that. My wife was still naive at this point.
5 No fedex came within the next week. S then said she would wire transfer money from her savings account to our checking account. The bank is different from that on the bad checks. My wife didn't have our bank info handy but had her debit card. S said that she could read the debit card number off to her bank and that her bank could use that info to do the wire transfer. Believe it or not, my wife actually held out the debit card for her. S pretended to make phone call in front of my wife, reading off the number, etc. More on this later.
6 I know wire transfers generally take no more than 48 hours. I confronted S a week later by phone and told her no transfer went through. S gave me bank name and number. S also gave me what she said was SSN. Knowing that she was a fraud, I called the number she gave me. The bank had no record of her by name, nor by SSN. The wire transfer dept had no record of any transfers going to our bank.
7 Around the time of 6 above, I found out there were fraudulant charges on my wife's debit card. One was to SprintPCS for $40. . Minutes later, discovered that there were fraudulant chrages on our joint credit card. Every one of those was to SprintPCS, totalling around $1700. Both cards were then cancelled.
8. Contacted Sprint and confirmed that our credit card transactions were linked to her cell account. Her account was closed. The debit card transaction was also linked.
9. Got back from vacation (yeah we were vacationing during 6-8 above) and found that S had left letter on our door. Enclosed was check for $450. She said it was what she owed us. In actuality, what she owed us at that point was $300, because my bank indicated that her $250 check was deposited.
10. But then my bank made a callback on the check. The check was returned and turns out the checking account was closed. Indications are that the account had been closed for some time. After doing some digging, I find CA Penal Code 476a.a which states
"476a. (a) Any person who for himself or as the agent or
representative of another or as an officer of a corporation,
willfully, with intent to defraud, makes or draws or utters or
delivers any check, or draft or order upon any bank or depositary, or person, or firm, or corporation, for the payment of money, knowing at the time of such making, drawing, uttering, or delivering that the maker or drawer or the corporation has not sufficient funds in, or credit with said bank or depositary, or person, or firm, or corporation, for the payment of such check, draft, or order and all other checks, drafts, or orders upon such funds then outstanding, in full upon its presentation, although no express representation is made with reference thereto, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison."
So it seems this might be straight forward. We never sent the $450 check to our bank. I called the bank and they said there was no existing account with the checking account # on the check. She also wrote bad checks to several acquaintances (she also gave to one of these people a different SSN - she used the fictitious wire transfer again). These cases of bad checks should be easily prosecuted. But the credit card fraud is different. Here is CA Code 484e.d
"484e. (d) Every person who acquires or retains possession of access card account information with respect to an access card validly issued to another person, without the cardholder's or issuer's consent, with the intent to use it fraudulently, is guilty of grand theft."
The word 'consent' is troublesome. First of all, my wife let her use the credit card initially to make that one Sprint payment. Her defense would have that one pretty easy. They would say that she had my wife's consent for all. Local police think that one is very tough. Then with the debit card, my wife gave her that card to give to the bank (i.e. the fictitious wire transfer). But since she gave her the number simply to give to a bank (i.e. not for a transaction like the case with the credit card), the police think that might have a good chance.
The credit card is what I am most concerned about because of the dollar value of the fraud. Here is where I am grasping for straws. Please tell me, if you think this would hold any water:
When my wife let her make the sprint payment, S didn't truly 'obtain' the account info. My wife held the card in her hand for 10 seconds while S read the number off to Sprint. It's not like she memorized a 16 digit number right then and there. So Sprint are the ones who really 'obtained' the info. So, for her subsequent SprintPCS charges, she must have done one of two things:
1. She already knew our credit card info because of the receipt she received as described in 3 above. She used this knowledge to make the other payments. Since my wife didn't know the account number was on the receipt, S did not have consent.
2. She called Sprint and told them to use the card that was used before. In this case, there was no obtaining of info with my wife's consent. Sprint simply had the info.
Anyway, if anyone can think of any brilliant way to make the credit card fraud stick, please let me know so that I can give as much info as possible to police and DA.
Police are also looking into the SSN's that she gave out. If they match other people, then that is Identity Theft which is federal.
Thanks,
Brian
Sorry this isn't brief, but it contains the details necessary for assistance:
I live in California and am pressing charges against an individual (refer to from here onwards as S). It is in regards to credit card fraud and writing of bad checks. I was hoping someone can give me some angles to work on that the locals might not think of (they have busy schedules - it's not like they can think these things through from all angles).
Anyway, here are the details as a chronology. You have to read it all for everything to tie together as a unit.
1 S befriended my wife
2 S asked my wife one day while they were shopping, if she could borrow money to make a purchase in a store. My wife used our joint credit card and it cost $250. S wrote check for $250.
3 A week later, S and my wife were shopping. At this point we didn't know that the check mentioned in 2 above was bad. S asked to borrow more money. My wife made a purchase for her at one store. My wife didn't realize our joint credit card number was on the receipt. S asked for the receipt so she could have a record of what she owed. More on this to come. This same day, my wife went to ATM and took out $100 to lend her. And lastly, my wife (real smart, huh?) agreed to let her pay her SprintPCS bill with our credit card. The total of these purchases and transactions was $300. More on this later.
4 Day later, S said she would have her boss from Maryland fedex to us her last check. Her first check still hadn't cleared on top of that. My wife was still naive at this point.
5 No fedex came within the next week. S then said she would wire transfer money from her savings account to our checking account. The bank is different from that on the bad checks. My wife didn't have our bank info handy but had her debit card. S said that she could read the debit card number off to her bank and that her bank could use that info to do the wire transfer. Believe it or not, my wife actually held out the debit card for her. S pretended to make phone call in front of my wife, reading off the number, etc. More on this later.
6 I know wire transfers generally take no more than 48 hours. I confronted S a week later by phone and told her no transfer went through. S gave me bank name and number. S also gave me what she said was SSN. Knowing that she was a fraud, I called the number she gave me. The bank had no record of her by name, nor by SSN. The wire transfer dept had no record of any transfers going to our bank.
7 Around the time of 6 above, I found out there were fraudulant charges on my wife's debit card. One was to SprintPCS for $40. . Minutes later, discovered that there were fraudulant chrages on our joint credit card. Every one of those was to SprintPCS, totalling around $1700. Both cards were then cancelled.
8. Contacted Sprint and confirmed that our credit card transactions were linked to her cell account. Her account was closed. The debit card transaction was also linked.
9. Got back from vacation (yeah we were vacationing during 6-8 above) and found that S had left letter on our door. Enclosed was check for $450. She said it was what she owed us. In actuality, what she owed us at that point was $300, because my bank indicated that her $250 check was deposited.
10. But then my bank made a callback on the check. The check was returned and turns out the checking account was closed. Indications are that the account had been closed for some time. After doing some digging, I find CA Penal Code 476a.a which states
"476a. (a) Any person who for himself or as the agent or
representative of another or as an officer of a corporation,
willfully, with intent to defraud, makes or draws or utters or
delivers any check, or draft or order upon any bank or depositary, or person, or firm, or corporation, for the payment of money, knowing at the time of such making, drawing, uttering, or delivering that the maker or drawer or the corporation has not sufficient funds in, or credit with said bank or depositary, or person, or firm, or corporation, for the payment of such check, draft, or order and all other checks, drafts, or orders upon such funds then outstanding, in full upon its presentation, although no express representation is made with reference thereto, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison."
So it seems this might be straight forward. We never sent the $450 check to our bank. I called the bank and they said there was no existing account with the checking account # on the check. She also wrote bad checks to several acquaintances (she also gave to one of these people a different SSN - she used the fictitious wire transfer again). These cases of bad checks should be easily prosecuted. But the credit card fraud is different. Here is CA Code 484e.d
"484e. (d) Every person who acquires or retains possession of access card account information with respect to an access card validly issued to another person, without the cardholder's or issuer's consent, with the intent to use it fraudulently, is guilty of grand theft."
The word 'consent' is troublesome. First of all, my wife let her use the credit card initially to make that one Sprint payment. Her defense would have that one pretty easy. They would say that she had my wife's consent for all. Local police think that one is very tough. Then with the debit card, my wife gave her that card to give to the bank (i.e. the fictitious wire transfer). But since she gave her the number simply to give to a bank (i.e. not for a transaction like the case with the credit card), the police think that might have a good chance.
The credit card is what I am most concerned about because of the dollar value of the fraud. Here is where I am grasping for straws. Please tell me, if you think this would hold any water:
When my wife let her make the sprint payment, S didn't truly 'obtain' the account info. My wife held the card in her hand for 10 seconds while S read the number off to Sprint. It's not like she memorized a 16 digit number right then and there. So Sprint are the ones who really 'obtained' the info. So, for her subsequent SprintPCS charges, she must have done one of two things:
1. She already knew our credit card info because of the receipt she received as described in 3 above. She used this knowledge to make the other payments. Since my wife didn't know the account number was on the receipt, S did not have consent.
2. She called Sprint and told them to use the card that was used before. In this case, there was no obtaining of info with my wife's consent. Sprint simply had the info.
Anyway, if anyone can think of any brilliant way to make the credit card fraud stick, please let me know so that I can give as much info as possible to police and DA.
Police are also looking into the SSN's that she gave out. If they match other people, then that is Identity Theft which is federal.
Thanks,
Brian